Octavia E. Butler seated by her bookcase in 1986. “Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories” will be at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino April 8-Aug. 7. Photo by Patti Perret.

Octavia E. Butler’s motivational notes on writing from 1988. This will be on display in “Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories” at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino April 8-Aug. 7. Photo courtesy of the Huntington.

Octavia E. Butler’s colorful notes on writing will be on display in “Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories” at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino April 8-Aug. 7. Photo courtesy of the Huntington.

A working draft of Octavia E. Butler’s “Kindred.” It will be on display in “Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories” at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino April 8-Aug. 7. Photo courtesy of the Huntington.

Octavia E. Butler wrote detailed notes to keep her stories consistent, such as these on the Oankali in her Xenogenesis trilogy. Some of her notes will be on display in “Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories” at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino April 8-Aug. 7. Photo courtesy of the Huntington.

“A lot of people look at her as a godmother or leading figure in what’s being called Afro-Futurism, which is gaining a lot of traction for multiple reasons,” Natalie Russell, assistant curator of literary collections for the Huntington, said. “One reason is the idea of expanding the voices out there in arts, culture and literature and to have voices of color that are active and people from those communities recognizing if we want these voices to be more prevalent, we have to do something about it.”

Butler’s themes still resonate

Butler’s stories contained themes of social justice and social issues, as well as concerns over the future, Russell said.

“She was interested in the environment. She was concerned about climate change, she was concerned about drought. She was interested in feminist ideas, how women and men relate to one another, what the role of women is, how women react to problems and how they cope with them. Many of her stories used female characters to show a different way to cope with an issue,” Russell said. “There’s a lot of social angst in our society right now and she’s tapping into that with things she wrote 10, 20, 30 years ago.”

Butler also looked at race, skin color and language and how those aspects draw people together or pull them apart.

“She’s really talking about what makes us human in all of those myriad facets,” Russell said.

An array of Butler’s items on exhibit

Since the author, who died at age 58 from a stroke in 2006 in Lake Forest Park, Washington, willed her entire archive to the Huntington, Russell had plenty to choose from for the exhibit. Visitors can see original manuscripts, samples of Butler’s research, photographs and much more.

Butler spent many hours at the library, as evidenced by her stack of green call slips, the cards given to librarians requesting particular books. Butler wrote notes on the call slips too, as well as index cards, odd sheets of paper, notebooks, papers bags and whatever else was handy when an idea hit.

One index card is covered with notes about a real disease and one Butler created for “Clay’s Ark.” These details are the science in Butler’s science fiction, Russell said, and the notes helped her keep consistency throughout her novels.

“Because she does this research, the authenticity of her writing and her story is so believable,” Russell said. “Because everything about what she’s created is based in reality.”

Butler also drew maps to better visualize where the characters in her stories lived, worked and traveled. One white paper bag shows Pasadena as the basis for the city of Forsyth in her Patternist novels. Butler drew Fair Oaks and Lake avenues and other streets in Pasadena and renamed them.

Perhaps the most interesting items in Butler’s archives are her motivational notes about what she wanted to do, such as being a best-selling author. She suffered from writer’s block and had self-doubt even after she published several novels, so she would post these thoughts around her workspace to keep her going, Russell said.

“She thought it was more important to do the hard work, to persist, to keep working at it, not just wait for inspiration to hit you,” Russell said. “It was literally about you just keep writing, you have to keep working at it, and that’s what’s going to bring you the success.”

Butler wrote about humanity

Russell hopes that visitors to “Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories” will get a feel for Butler as a person as well as a storyteller and that Butler’s ideas will inspire others to strive for their dreams.

“The reason she wrote science fiction more than anything else she said is, ‘There isn’t anything I can’t do in it,’ ” Russell said. “She saw ultimate freedom in this genre.”

Butler is one of the best examples of how freeing science fiction can be, allowing you to contemplate a wide range of issues, including relationships, social justice, racial tensions, climate change, politics and religion, and you can even do it all in one story, Russell said.

“You’ve missed out on so much if you think science fiction doesn’t have anything useful to say about the world today,” Russell said. “It can probably say more about the world today than any news story or any fiction that you’re going to read and touch you at that most human level while doing it.”

Michelle Mills has been an entertainment and features reporter for the Southern California News Group since 1999. She has interviewed such notables as "Weird Al" Yankovic, Glen Campbell, Alice Cooper, Debbie Allen, Ernest Borgnine (during an earthquake) and Adam Young (Owl City). She was the 31st Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade Queen reigning 2007-2009. She is a professional belly dancer (swordwork is her specialty) and also studies Polynesian and Tahitian dance.

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